The Five Best Concerts in Phoenix This Week

Looking for a memorable concert to check out this week? You’ve got plenty of options, including the following “can’t miss” selections that comprise our weekly list of the best concerts happening over the next several nights.

And its certainly an eclectic list, to say the least, as it features costumed garage rockers (King Khan and the Shrines), eerie pop artists (The Casket Girls), a metal-meets-mariachi cover band (Metalachi), and an old favorite from the late-'90s swing revival (Squirrel Nut Zippers)

There are plenty of other worthwhile gigs happening around the Valley, this week, including Myrlin Hepworth and Mic Maven's show at the Crescent Ballroom on Monday night, local concerts by such indie favorites as Naytronix on Tuesday and Alaska on Wednesday, followed by the latest edition of The Blunt Club on Thursday. As always, if you're looking for even more live music happening in and around the Valley, be sure to hit up our comprehensive concert calendar at www.phxconcerts.com for even more options.

Graveface Roadshow feat. The Casket Girls – Monday, June 27 – The Rebel Lounge It’s been an interesting 2016 for Savannah, Georgia's the Casket Girls. With the release of the quartet's sixth offering, the dark, enchanting, and deliciously noisy The Night Machines, earlier this month, sisters Phaedra and Elsa Greene and bandmate Ryan Manon are riding a wonderful wave of brooding enthusiasm as they hit Phoenix at the Rebel Lounge.

It isn't often a band like the Casket Girls, who are not easy to pigeonhole, comes along, but within the world of ethereal goth(ish) music, they are a true standout in the current crop of synth-heavy, slow-burn, slightly poppy, shoegaze-y music. Their sound is reminiscent of some of the early 4AD bands (Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil) and honestly, they would fit right in with 4AD if they were not attached to hometown label Graveface Records (run by Manon), which is also home to The Appleseed Cast and Black Moth Super Rainbow. Catch the Casket Girls at an intimate venue like the Rebel Lounge while you still have the chance, as bands like this either don't last long or end up being huge. TOM REARDON

Metalachi – Monday, June 27 – Rhythm RoomThose able to picture Axl Rose adorned in an ornate, oversized sombrero, or a bandanna-wearing Bret Michaels strumming a fat guitarrón, or Motley Crue wearing rivet-edged chaps, vests and pointy toed boots among the eyeliner, can also envision the spectacle that is Metalachi. Made up of five half-brothers, Metalachi combines the force and at times over-the-top exuberance of heavy metal with the stoic and storied history and tradition of Mexican mariachi music.

Somehow, it works, really well — in kind of a tongue-in-cheek manner — though in the beginning there were many skeptics, including the band members themselves. Like, say, Metalachi violinist Maximilian "Dirty" Sanchez, for instance, who spoke with New Times in 2014 about his initial hesitation with the project. “At our first show I think we all thought, ‘Wow, we're part of something big. We can step outside our everyday mundane lives as mariachi musicians,’” he says. “Mariachi is very limited creatively as far as song choice. We're just regurgitating songs. We wanted to do something new for mariachi and represent it in a new light. It's very, very exciting.” GLENN BURNSILVER

King Khan and the Shrines – Tuesday, June 28 – Crescent Ballroom It's hard to tell who King Khan is channeling when he gets on stage. James Brown comes to mind first, as does Screamin' Jay Hawkins. He sings about the important things: Mainly sex, food and rock 'n' roll. Also, the man has style and is known to perform in a satin cape, gold glitter blouse, and feathered headdress. Yes, he wears a blouse and he doesn't give a fuck.

It seems like King Khan and his eight-piece Shrines have been perpetually on the road, and are still fueled by the psych-soul voodoo that is their music, and possibly something otherworldly, too. First and foremost, they're a dance party band, and they tend to get the crowd all lathered up with their songs, which boasts distorted notes matching Khan's psycho-howl with ease, or antics, which include Khan putting his cape up to his face and striking various band members with his voodoo hand. Somewhere, Screamin' Jay was no doubt watching and grinning. AUDRA SCHROEDER

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Little Tybee – Wednesday, June 29 – Last Exit Live Based in Atlanta, this folk rock/experimental rock sextet came first landed on the music world’s radar after the dissolution of their previous act, The Brock Stock Quartet in 2009. Their first effort, the self-released debut album Building a Bomb, dropped shortly thereafter, propelling the act into a string of high-profile performances, including collaborations with South by Southwest, CMJ, and Fringe Festival. Their self-titled album, which was released earlier this year, helped to furthered cement the band's surprisingly smooth tender, sound — as well as their place in the ever-popular folk rock scene. MICHELLE OFIWE

Squirrel Nut Zippers – Thursday, June 30 – Marquee Theatre Perhaps the best way to describe the Squirrel Nut Zippers is to clear up what they aren't. They didn’t belong to the late '90s neo-swing movement that consisted of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, or other like-styled rockers-turned-zoot-suit-rioters. Nor did they fall into the Vegas show band, cocktail nation, No Depression, or jazz camps. Instead, what the Zippers embodied both back then and still today is a savory, southernized gumbo of all those elements minus any overt nostalgia, homage, or camp.

As for the band members themselves, a line from one of their early songs could double as their performing impetus over the decades: "If it's good enough for granddad, then it's good enough for me." Apparently, it was also good enough for their fanbase way back when, who helped made the Zippers' "Hell" – a rumba-and-calypso tour of Satan's domain – 1997's most unlikely radio hit. BOB RUGGIERO